W: Possible missing firmware ???.fw.bin?? for module ??????.ko

[Rodd Clarkson]

On Wed, 2009-11-04 at 17:45 -0800, Antonio Olivares wrote:
> 
> --- On Wed, 11/4/09, Rick Stevens <ricks at nerd.com> wrote:
> 
> > From: Rick Stevens <ricks at nerd.com>
> > Subject: Re: W: Possible missing firmware ???.fw.bin?? for module ??????.ko
> > To: "For testers of Fedora Core development releases" <fedora-test-list at redhat.com>
> > Date: Wednesday, November 4, 2009, 3:30 PM
> > Antonio Olivares wrote:
> > > Dear fellow testers,
> > > 
> > > Has anyone noticed something like the Subject line?
> > > 
> > >   Installing     :
> > kernel-2.6.31.5-115.fc12.x86_64       
> >                
> > 10/87
> > > W: Possible missing firmware aic94xx-seq.fw for module
> > aic94xx.ko
> > > W: Possible missing firmware ql8100_fw.bin for module
> > qla2xxx.ko
> > > W: Possible missing firmware ql2400_fw.bin for module
> > qla2xxx.ko
> > > W: Possible missing firmware ql2322_fw.bin for module
> > qla2xxx.ko
> > > W: Possible missing firmware ql2300_fw.bin for module
> > qla2xxx.ko
> > > W: Possible missing firmware ql2200_fw.bin for module
> > qla2xxx.ko
> > > W: Possible missing firmware ql2100_fw.bin for module
> > qla2xxx.ko
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Does it mean that if we have the above firmware on our
> > machines, that the kernel modules are not there because of
> > error?
> > 
> > The firmware files are expected to be installed in
> > /lib/firmware by the
> > modules.  Note that that's "/lib/firmware" regardless
> > of 32- or 64-bit
> > systems.
> > 
> > The QLogic firmware files (the qla2xxx driver is for QLogic
> > fiberchannel
> > HBAs) are installed by making sure you install the
> > appropriate RPMs:
> > 
> >     [root at prophead ~]# rpm -qf
> > /lib/firmware/ql2300_fw.bin
> >     ql23xx-firmware-3.03.27-1.fc10.noarch
> > 
> [olivares at n6355-19134 ~]$ uname -r
> 2.6.31.5-115.fc12.x86_64
> [olivares at n6355-19134 ~]$ rpm -qf /lib/firmware/ql2300_fw.bin
> error: file /lib/firmware/ql2300_fw.bin: No such file or directory
> 
> 
> > So "yum install ql*-firmware*" should get you all of
> > them.  You're
> > running a lot of fiberchannel stuff?  
> 
> I actually don't know how all of this works.  I just installed rawhide x86_64 on a spare machine at work^{1} and this is what I see. Do I really need to install all of that firmware?   

I'm seeing similar (possible the same) stuff too on updates to the
kernel.

I haven't gone out of my way to find the .fw files and I don't seem to
be suffering for it, but it did make me wonder, does my machine need
these files, or is this just a general warning of some sort.

R